


you gotta give yourself a moment

by exceed



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Gen, Late Night Chats, hot chocolate mmm, hurt/comfort i suppose, mentions of the ipre crew, those good good late night nightmares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-16
Updated: 2018-05-16
Packaged: 2019-05-07 14:56:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14673482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/exceed/pseuds/exceed
Summary: He opened his eyes to a battlefield.Magnus has a nightmare. Hot chocolate helps.





	you gotta give yourself a moment

**Author's Note:**

  * For [stonestars](https://archiveofourown.org/users/stonestars/gifts).



> HEY HAN YOU'RE GREAT AND PLEASE DON'T DIE FROM THIS  
> happy birthday, as i'm sure i've told you already!!! i hope you like this!!! i hope you like my effort to write your favorite bird. <3
> 
> title is a song lyric from lose it by oh wonder

He opened his eyes to a battlefield.

Battle rushed on around him, and- and he couldn’t see anything, really, not with the chaos of steel and spells curling around his sight. A blast of fire could be seen off to his left, but he couldn’t see Lup, not with hordes of the enemy circling him.

He raised his axe, red jacket flashing in the bright evening, and cut down those that were attacking his family.

There were too many attackers. He knew that, Cap’n’port most likely knew that, and the others had to- but they had to get out, somehow. The Starblaster circled overhead, looking for an opening in the sea of fighting, and he could barely spare a glance up at it before he had to spin and push back an assailant.

He turned as a gap opened and rushed in. They had been separated- it had nearly been impossible to get to his friends, his family before, but now there was an opening and-

-and through the temporary opening that he was given, he could only watch with horrified eyes as an arrow cut through the air, straight towards Lucretia’s unshielded body-

_“Lucretia!”_

And she turned, blinking as she cast a spell to cut down those near her, turning and seeing the arrow coming right at her and _she wasn’t throwing up a shield-_

He woke up panting, eyes staring blankly at the walls of his room in the Starblaster, the image of her still, lifeless body with an arrow lodged in it fresh in his mind.

It had just been last cycle.

The rest of them had managed to get out, but- they had come back a day later after Magnus had pleaded, begged for them to do something, and so they gave Lucretia her sixth funeral, fire burning high in the sky among a sea of other bodies, the mark of a battle of six against many, many others.

She had been given enough time to shield herself.

She hadn’t.

That fact weighed on his mind, just as remembering her first death that still couldn’t be explained with proof- dead in a forest, body so small, surrounded by pawprints- all of scavengers. No predators, even if she had claimed that there had been some. There just wasn’t a chance. He had spent the rest of that cycle researching what the pawprints had been.

He had kept a closer eye on her after that.

Magnus hadn’t been able to protect her from eating the poisoned food at a fancy gathering. (Had she known it was poisoned? It had killed another person there, but- well, he couldn’t be sure. The items had looked tasty, and they were behind the wine, and-- there was no way of telling. He just had to double-check all of the food that wasn’t prepared by one of them after that.)

The forest, the gathering, the battle- it left a sick taste in his mouth, one that couldn’t go away no matter what he had to eat or drink. Something was wrong, and he suspected something, and--

-and he could worry about that later, maybe when he wasn’t half-panicked from the dream.

Deep breaths. Deep breaths. In- aaand out. Everything was going to be fine.

He slowly lurched upwards, moving to sit on the edge of his bed, elbows on his legs as he leaned forwards to sigh.

He was still shaken, even after a few minutes of trying to calm down- he wouldn’t be getting sleep anytime soon. That left one thing to do, really. The one thing that could calm him down that wasn’t training ‘til he got exhausted.

A cup of hot chocolate would be perfect. Taako’s recipe, of course- one of the few things he could do well, since he always wanted it a lot. With marshmallows. He wasn’t a monster, anyways, and only monsters didn’t put marshmallows in their hot chocolate.

Bringing a blanket for the chilly hallways, he made his way out of his room and passed the others. They were all sleeping, he didn’t want to bother them-

But as he reached Lucretia’s closed door, he paused.

...She was alive, right? He didn’t mistakenly think that she was alive?

...Maybe a peek inside her room would be best, even if he didn’t want to disturb her privacy.

He reached a hand forward, ever so slowly and turned the knob, peering inside to find tired eyes staring right back at him, Lucretia hunched over her desk with a few floating lights above her.

He blinked.

She blinked back.

“...Magnus? Do you need anything?” She sounded _exhausted_ as she stood up, closing the book that she had been reading and walking over to him. Her eyes were full of concern, messy curls of snow framing her face as she looked up at him.

She was alive.

“I, uh- it’s...it’s nothing. Don’t worry about it, Luce.” He rubbed at the back of his neck sheepishly before looking closer at her, frowning just a bit. The curls were messy, even for his standards, and she looked like she hadn’t had sleep in days. She constantly blinked as if to stay awake, although she seemed to be doing better now, but...hm. “When was the last time you slept?”

Lucretia seemed surprised at the question, moving back to squint at her clock before at her calendar, which...she seemed to still think she was in the previous day. Had she not come out at all, or something? He hadn’t seen her for the day, but...he had been assisting Davenport, and...well.

“Um...A day ago? I’ve been reading for a while, I guess.”

“...Uh, Luce?”

“Yes?”

“It’s, uh, the twenty-third, not the twenty-second.”

She blinked wildly at him before looking over at the closed book, a deep frown on her face. “So I’ve been in here for…”

“A lot longer than you think.”

Lucretia gave a large yawn, shaking her head and rubbing at her eyes. She didn’t look unsettled at the realization, more...surprised than anything. “...Huh. That, uh, explains why I’m so tired.” She caught his slight smile and snorted, shaking her head. “Don’t you dare make fun of me for getting into a book. It’s on this cycle’s equivalent of abjuration, Magnus!”

“And I’m sure it’s wonderful,” he said with a smile, emotions still a mix of relief and concern and amusement. “And you’re going to have to go ahead and sleep soon.”

“But I’m so close to the end!”

He peered over at her bookmark and raised an eyebrow after seeing its place. “So spending, what, a day and a half straight reading this and only being halfway through is ‘so close to the end’?” He turned to see her sheepish smile before laughing and taking her hand. “C’mon, Luce. I’m gonna make some hot chocolate. Do you want any? It helps me sleep, anyways.” Her lifeless body lingered at the back of his mind. “It may help you, too.”

There was a pause before she nodded. “With marshmallows?”

“Of _course._ ”

They made their way out of her room, Magnus helping Lucretia stumble along as they made their way into the kitchen, the scribe slowly making her way up onto a stool as Magnus pulled out ingredients. He could practically hear Taako’s voice as he had taught him the recipe- _not too much, fuck, Maggie, easy on just how much chocolate you add._ He got out extra chocolate in spite of the recipe. So what if he liked it with more?

He glanced back to see Lucretia watching him, a lazy little smile on her face as he started to bring everything together. He struck up conversation as he stood there- silence, however comfortable, wasn’t his forte. “So, uh, Luce.”

“Hmm?”

“How’s this cycle been treating you so far? It’s only been a month, yeah?”

“Yeah.” He could hear her shifting in her seat and he broke off a bit of chocolate, popping it into his mouth as he made the hot chocolate. Damn, he loved this chocolate. “The libraries here are...really good. Their magic is advanced, too- their theory is different, but it works in fascinating ways…”

Magnus chuckled and shook his head. “Not what I meant, Luce. Have you taken any time to relax? A day off?” He took a quick moment to check her reaction and found a puzzled look before he turned back to get two mugs down from a shelf, grabbing the marshmallows from the nearby cabinet as he went. “So that’s a no?”

“I...I’ve been reading? And I like to read? And it’s helping us, too?”

“I mean, like...taking a day to nap around. Eat a few more snacks. Maybe sunbathe or stargaze or have a really nice bath. The twins grabbed what they called ‘bath bombs’ a few days ago, and they’re actually really nice!”

“...Why would I do that?”

“To take care of yourself!” There was silence as he finished up the hot chocolate, carefully pouring it into the mugs and storing the rest for later, putting some marshmallows in each cup and some chocolate shavings on top of that. Taako would be proud of the presentation at least, dammit.

Lucretia still looked absolutely perplexed as he handed her her mug (World’s Best Sister on the side, which had historically been given to both Lup and Lucretia over the years), sipping at the hot chocolate with a tired murmur of thanks as he sat down next to her.

“You know? Take care of your body and mind? So you don’t wear yourself down?” He frowned at her and took a good, long sip of the hot chocolate. Fuck yeah, the extra chocolate had been a great idea. He was a genius.

“Sounds weird,” she eventually murmured, making him look at her with surprise. It had been- what, quite a few cycles now?- and she still didn’t get self-care?

“You know what? Self-care day tomorrow,” he declared, taking another large sip of his hot chocolate even as Lucretia smiled just a bit. He ignored the way his mind lingered on the details that meant she was alive, the images lurking in the back of his mind of a bright red robe on a forest floor-

“You deserve it. I bet the others’ll help, too! No reading that book tomorrow, Luce. We’re gonna do nice, relaxing stuff. It’ll be great.”

She looked at him skeptically, sipping and leaning forwards on the stool with a yawn. “I...I doubt it, Magnus, but I can’t really stop you, yeah?”

“Nope,” he said, popping the ‘p’ and drinking the rest of the hot chocolate with a content sigh. Despite the state he had been in earlier, when he wanted to check to see if he was alive, panic buried deep in his soul...he was doing better now. His thoughts were now of helping her, giving her a relaxing day, which she didn’t seem to have often…

...Yeah. He’d be the best brother on the ship, definitely. Even Taako would be jealous.

“You done yet?” He tilted his head as she finished her mug, sweeping it up with his and washing them out ( _“Only heathens don’t wash the dishes,”_ Taako had screeched in Cycle 2) with a content little smile on his face. “You should get some sleep, Luce. Sleep in, don’t set that alarm you always have.”

“But-”

“Mm. Nope! Self-care day for you! You get as much sleep as you need!” He lifted her off of the stool as she wheezed and placed her down on the floor, grinning at her half-amused smile. She didn’t laugh too much, but- at this time, a smile was good. “Let’s make sure you sleep, and not at your desk. You’re practically asleep on your feet!”

“I…” Lucretia yawned, swaying a bit and he laughed, picking her up again and moving towards her room with a goofy grin on his face.

“Sleepy time!”

She was alive, and that was what mattered. His family was alive and safe, and it made his heart sing brightly.

Everything was alright with the world.


End file.
